10 May, 2008

Spanish DEMONIAC?




Have any of our Spanish or European blog readers acquired/seen this DVD? I'm curious about the exact content. Is this the 1974 EXORCISM/EXORCISME ET MESSE NOIRES* or the 1979 remix EL SADICO DE NOTRE DAME aka DEMONIAC (edited US variant, released by WIZARD VIDEO)? It could possibly be the hardcore variant, SEXORCIME (1975). This is not the Spanish Manga DVD, EL SADICO DE NOTRE DAME, which is the 1979 composite of EXORCISM with new scenes involving Jess Franco's character added. Or could this be yet another, unique cut?

Also any reports on technical specs/video/audio quality would be welcome. The artwork is rather fascinating and I've never seen any version packaged this way or under this title.

*Released on US DVD in 2001 by Synapse Films.


9 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's EXORCISM, the first version. Good quality, options in English, French and a recent Spanish dub. This means that Franco's voice is not heard in Spanish, even if curiously, that is his voice in the French version (he did dub himself for EL SÁDICO). That's from a newsstand collection issued a few years ago.
The collection was a revelation for many Spaniards but contains nothing to detain foreign collectors, who are better served. The Spanish dubs are poor, and it is obvious that the company couldn't find the M and E tracks.

Robert Monell said...

Thanks for the details, Nzoog. I have the hc version of EXORCISM and Franco's voice is on there, in French. I think his own voice adds a lot to the character and film. I didn't realize he dubbed EL SADICO.. Do you mean the newer Manga version. When he did do that dubbing?

Anonymous said...

Well, EL SÁDICO had been premiered in Spain in the late seventies/ early eighties. It was actually made then, in a way: Franco got the first film, EXORCISM, changed the sequence and editing, and added more scenes with himself and Antonio de Cabo, among others, as you know well. So he was around to do the dubbing. Thus, the Manga people didn't have to hire any dubbers: a Spanish soundtrack already existed.
Some Franco films, like VIAJE A BANGKOK, ATAUD INCLUIDO and LA CHICA DE LAS BRAGAS TRANSPARENTES featured the voices of Madrid dubbers, regularly employed at the Arcofón studios, but it was fairly common for Mayans, Lina Romay, Ricardo Palacios (himself a career dubber) and Franco himself (there's no mistaking his tenor voice) to do their own dubbing.
LA CHICA DE LAS BRAGAS TRANSPARENTES, by the way, credits Carlos Romero-Marchent as dubbing director.

Robert Monell said...

Thanks for the information on the Spanish theatrical showing. I wonder how EL SADICO did at the boxoffice there in 1980?

Anonymous said...

It says at the mcu site that it attracted a mere 65,000 people or so. However, considering that it largely consisted of existing film, meaning it couldn't have cost that much, and that the film had OK export potential, I don't think it was a tragedy

Robert Monell said...

It says a TRITON FILMS MADRID coproduction with Eurocine, which produced the 74 versions. A film which only had that many viewers in the US would be considered a disaster!

Anonymous said...

Well, even considering the population difference, it is a low rate of attendance, but the photography couldn't have cost Tritón that much money. Eurociné put up a film they had had for half a decade. All that was left (other than new editing, dubbing and scoring)was the making of about half an hour of film.

Anonymous said...

You can find it here: http://www.fnac.es/dsp/?servlet=extended.HomeExtendedServlet&Code1=3529898509&Code2=223&prodID=496688
I saw it the other day at this shop and u just remind me!;)

Robert Monell said...

Thanks for the link Elena. Welcome to the blog.